In 1973, Hilary and George Bradt were told about an old Inca road leading from Cusco’s Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu. They hiked it, explored the ruins and published the first ever description of the Inca Trail in 1974. Backpacking Along Ancient Ways in Peru and Bolivia became the first Bradt guide and 40 years [...]Trekking in Peru is a post from: Global Travels



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The Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South […]

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UN urges Syria to speed up its role in eliminating chemical weapons
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon has expressed concern to the Syrian government of its "now behind schedule" elimination of chemical weapon and said it was imperative Damascus intensify its efforts.

Ban said in a letter sent to the UN Security Council on Tuesday that he was aware of the "volatile security situation" faced by the Syrian government, involved in a nearly three-year-old civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 100 000 people and displaced more than six million people.

Following the alleged use of Sarin gas, which killed hundreds in Syria last August, Syria announced it was joining the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and said it would eliminate its chemical weapons with the help of the international community.

The government and opposition blamed each other for the August 21 gas attack.

The 15-nation Security Council endorsed the elimination move, established a joint UN-OPCW mission to oversee it and mandated regular progress reports from the secretary-general.

On January 7, priority chemical weapons were moved to the Syrian port of Latakia, where they were processed and loaded onto a Danish cargo vessel, which then left the port and set out to sea escorted by a naval ship from "participating member states" of the United Nations.

It waited at sea for further chemicals. Britain, China, Danish, Norwegian, Russian and US ships are participating.

"Since then, however, there has been no further movement of chemical weapons material and the vessels remain positioned outside Syrian territorial waters while waiting for chemical weapons material from the storage sites to arrive at the port of Latakia," Ban said in a letter to the council, accompanying the latest OPCW report, dated January 24.

"I am concerned that more movements have not taken place," he added, recalling the December 31 deadline for the removal of all priority chemical weapons material had been missed by a few days and "the February 5 deadline to remove other chemical materials is imminent".

"The operation to eliminate the Syrian chemical weapons programme is now behind schedule," the secretary-general said.

“I have spoken to the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR) and other member states concerned to express my concern regarding this delay. The director-general of OPCW (Ahmet Uzumcu) and the special coordinator (heading the joint mission, Sigrid Kaag) have similarly engaged senior Syrian representatives to persuade them to enable immediate removal.

"The delay is not insurmountable. The June 30, 2014, deadline is still five months away. However, it is imperative that the SAR now examine the situation, intensify its efforts to expedite in-country movements of chemical weapons material and continue to meet its obligations."

Uzumcu's report said he had expressed his concern to Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, regarding Syria's reporting obligations and "the substantial expenses being borne by Denmark and Norway with regard to the cargo ships and the potential risks in relation to the commercial tendering process posed by the delay".

Britain, China, Russia and the United States provided naval ships for security.

Remains of some of the chemicals used in the weapons being disassembled were to be handled by commercial firms while others are to be treated through hydrolysis aboard a US Navy ship at sea.

The chemicals for commercial rendering were to be taken to the port of Giaoia Tauro in southern Italy, the director-general said.

Germany said it would destroy effluent during the destruction of mustard agent, Belarus provided 13 field kitchens for related work in Syria and Britain said it "would provide equipment to support the process of neutralization of chemical warfare agents".

More than a dozen countries, including those participating, contributed to a Special Trust Fund for the Destruction of Syrian Chemical Weapons, which Uzumcu said stood at 13 million euros (about US $17.8 million) as of January 24. – SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua

PUMA and Arsenal Football Club have today announced a long-term partnership. Effective 1st July 2014, PUMA will become the official kit partner of Arsenal. In addition to producing the playing and training kit for all Arsenal teams, PUMA has acquired wide-ranging licensing rights to develop other Arsenal branded merchandise on a global basis. This new [...]Puma And Arsenal Partnership is a post from: Time-4-Sport



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When Apple debuted its new operating system in September, there was an immediate onslaught of hasty reviews from tech blogs and journalistic publications all across the Internet. This is typically how it goes with Apple – people get so excited for the release of new products and systems that there’s a tendency to judge them [...]Top Features From iOS 7 is a post from: Tech-e-View



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DC-12 Helps Teachers Take Lessons to the Next Level with HD Image Quality, Picture-in-Picture Zoom and Easy Setup Epson America today announced the new Epson® DC-12 document camera, Epson’s latest classroom imaging solution designed to help educators deliver engaging lessons and enhance the learning experience. With HD image quality and HDMI connectivity to deliver sharp [...]Robust DC-12 Document Camera is a post from: Tech-e-View



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Playing your favourite casino games has never been easier than it is today. With real casinos spread all around the world and the abundance of online casinos you’re always sure to find somewhere to play. These are many online casinos which have improved dramatically over the years, by offering more games than ever before and [...]Using your smartphone to access online casinos is a post from: Tech-e-View



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ISACA, a non-profit association of 100,000 IT professionals in 180 countries, today released further insights from its 2012 IT Risk/Reward Barometer. The study, conducted amongst 4,500 IT professionals from 83 countries, many of whom are of senior management level or higher, reveals that organisations remain sceptical when it comes to cloud services-especially public cloud computing. [...]Organisations Struggle Over Cloud Services is a post from: Tech-e-View



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Building on four decades of industry leadership in large scale virtualization, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a set of flexible workplace solutions that enable clients to create a simple, cost-effective environment that allows employees to use any device to access workplace applications anytime and anyplace. IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure solutions are designed to help clients [...]IBM Announces New Virtual Desktop solutions is a post from: Tech-e-View



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Hedge fund billionaire Carl Icahn said he bought another half a billion dollars' worth of Apple Inc stock on Tuesday, signaling confidence in the iPhone maker even after it gave a disappointing revenue forecast for the current quarter.

The investment, Icahn's third in Apple in less than a week, boosts the value of stake in the company to more than $4 billion. It was announced via his Twitter account as Apple's shares traded down about 8 percent following its quarterly report late on Monday, which renewed Wall Street's concerns about the maturing smartphone market.

Icahn told Reuters in a telephone interview that the decline in Apple shares presented "a great opportunity" to add to his position.

"Apple shares are very cheap. They are going at six to seven times earning," Icahn said. "It's not like we are holding something that is trading at 100 times earnings."

Icahn has provided a blow-by-blow account on Twitter of every new investment he's made in Apple since Wednesday, when he disclosed a $500 million purchase that took his position to $3 billion. He did so again on Thursday.

On Tuesday, he tweeted: "Just bought $500 million more $AAPL shares. My buying seems to be going neck-and-neck with Apple's buyback program, but hope they win that race."

see article - Carl Icahn invests in Apple